Notes / Commercial Description:
A robust amber ale brewed with locally roasted, organic fair trade espresso with help from our friends down the street at Coffee by Design. This malty amber ale is brewed with substantial amounts of Munich Malt, providing a perfect backbone for the rich, roasty flavor imparted by the espresso.

Peak Espresso Amber is the first Fair Trade Certified beer brewed in the United States. Read more here.

Reviews by AndyAvalanche:

Poured it into a Sam Adams Prefect pint glass. This beer looks awsome. Kind of a cross between a darker lager and brown ale color, a brown/amber color. It had only a slight haze to it, fairly decent clarity for its darker color. It has a cream colored head that lingers around for most of the session and provides excellent lacing to it. The smell is good, but overpowered by espresso. You can also smell the roasted malts and grains. The taste is good, but the blend of everything really leaves a little too much going on. Starts of initially sweet from the malts, but it doesn't last long. Shortly after you get the taste of the espresso and you can taste the hops where I really couldn't smell it over the espresso. The mouthfeel is average, you get two levels of bitterness from the espresso then the hops so it's not quite as pleasant, has above average drinkablility as well. All in all I liked this beer, I'd consider getting it again. I like the fact that it's organic. Also you can taste real espresso, I feel that sometimes it's just over burned coffee in "espresso" flavored beers, but this tastes of real espresso.

More User Reviews:

Poured into an imperial nonic a rich deep amber with a tight formed one finger off white head that held well,the espresso coffee really stands out in the nose,it provides roast and earth,lightly sweet caramel/biscuit comes into play as well.A little thin in the mouth and a little sharp as well.Mildly sweet caramel and brown sugar to start off with flavor wise,the coffee is more toned down than in the aromas but it still plays a role.A cool concept and decent beer,me being a lover of the hop likely wouldnt search out again but in saying that its a decent brew.

Good coffee taste as well. A bit of sweetness up front followed with a nice burnt coffee biscuit taste.

Feel is slightly thin, but not overcarbonated, so it balances out very nicely.

Not a huge coffee beer guy, but i could put a few of these down with ease. It seems to have the just the right kick of Espresso, without going overboard and overpowering you. These guys are a nice, extremely underrated brewery.

Drinkability: This is not a bad beer, but after having a bunch of coffee beers, nothing really stands out either besides the color. The black coffee taste is dominate. I could have another or just as well pass.

Popped the cap this beer simply exploded all over my computer desk, carpet, and keyboard. It smells like coffee the little bit that made it into a glass tastes like a Jolly Pumpkin wild yeast strain with hints of watered down coffee. Normally I don't review these type of beers but I don't respect Peak Organic at all. The beer smelled like a coffee mill and it looked like a geyser gushing from my 22 ounce bottle, completely inexcusable compared to what their fresh offerings have to offer. Horrible acrid acidic stale coffee, with astringent tea leaf bitterness, this beer is horrible. Drinkability overall sucks ass hole, please don't buy these "organic" products you will only get burnt. Even after I keep smelling it, it does smell like a nice ice brewed coffee. It just happens to taste like burnt coffee water after it's brewed. Horrible fuckin' beer. After browsin' the website all I can say comes in voice of Southpark's Cartman "fuck those tree huggin' hippies"!!!

Appearance: very cloudy, reddish-brown (iced tea look), with a thin head

Smell: Very nice coffee smell, hint of malt (not sure I'd know this is a beer from the flavor, vs a coffee drink)

Mouthfeel: Slightly thicker than your typical amber ale, but definitely not a porter - very nice.

Taste & drinkability: At my first taste, was really loving this beer. If had only drunk a 3oz sample, probably would have scored this beer much higher. Initially, a great blend between coffee, caramel malts, and a grapefruity hoppiness. For me, as I drank more of this beer, the hopiness really dominated more and more, and I lost most of the coffee features in the taste and smell.

The carbonation is fairly unremarkable, in a pleasant enough way, the body a decent medium weight, but a tad watery in its smoothness. It finishes well off-dry, the sweetness of the caramel malt holding tough against the still peppy, but now waning coffee character.

An enjoyable java-infused amber ale, and this from a guy who isn't a big fan of either. Very little acridity from the coffee makes for a smooth, easy-drinking affair, I have to say. I could see this being popular enough around here amongst the hipster bean & brew crowd, outside of the mostly secretive confines of this holiday special.

This beer has a real pretty look, easy on the eyes! A bright amber with deep red hues, mellow carbonation that is able to easily form a healthy, dense and sticky tan colored head. Bunches of lacing is good to see as well.

The aroma is a very pungent, roastie-coffee bean, take a big 'ol whiff....it's ALL coffee! Smells exactly like the fresh Peruvian coffee I purchased yesterday. Maybe a bit of subtle herbal aroma's way, way down, but that's it.

I was anxious since the aroma was so0 dominated by coffee that the flavor would just be too much....not at all. The fresh coffee is detected first in the upper palate, mostly because of the strong aroma, then it's a crispy, herbal but malty flavor, semi-sweet, unsweatend baker's chocolate, mild, but spicey herbal-hoppy finish. a very good balance in the long run.

This is a crispy medium body with a smooth and light finish. Feels much fuller than it appears.

Coffee is usually something you add to Stouts, some big stouts can even have big coffee-like flavor's without the bean actually being added. This is an amber ale with a very robust but clean coffee aroma and flavor, but it doesn't walk all over this beer. There is balance, and nothing subtle! One of the best, if not THE best "Organic" beer I've had so far.

12 oz bottle (screw-cap!), 6.8% ABV according to the label, which also indicates that the beer is best before June 2009. Poured into pint glass, cold. Beer pours deep red amber, becoming nearly brown in the glass. Medium tan head rests on top. Immediate aroma of fresh coffee, like coffee beans fresh out of the grinder. More mocha than espresso. (the beer is called espresso amber ale, but the description reads "ale with organic coffee" -- was the coffee processed as espresso or not?) The aroma is amazing, although it really doesn't smell like beer, it smells like light roast coffee...not too bitter.

First sip is sharp with carbonation. Definitely going to be a minus point on the mouthfeel. The sharpness subsides to a slightly sharp and bitter acidic kind of flavor. Hops, and then coffee. The finish is very long and even cloying. Slightly oily, like the way a sip of good coffee leaves your mouth.

The beer feels a little bit thin, with coffee flavors dominating the hops, and only enough malt to round it out, not enough to pronounce themselves with any specific flavor that I can identify. I should also mention that though the label claims 6.8% ABV, there's no harsh alcohol flavor at all.

Overall, slightly gimmicky. I'd never heard of a coffee-flavored beer that wasn't a porter or a stout before, and this delivers on that claim. The aroma is among the best smelling beers I've ever had (including W12 and Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier). The rest of the beer doesn't measure up to that, but it's an enjoyable experience all the same.

Although I enjoyed this beer in general, I thought the coffee tasted quite burnt. It brought me back to late nights of driving and 4 am truck stops with coffee that's been on the warmer since midnight. It smelled good, but the flavor didn't work for me (it might be great for you)! Other than that it's a fairly basic, well-rounded beer. The coffee becomes the main focus though. Hmmmm... I guess I'd also have to add that it didn't over-power or build on the palate, which at least goes a little bit towards drinkability. And although the coffee flavor is right-there, clear-and-bright, it wasn't acidic either. (Shrugs shoulders). Interesting. Enjoyable. Not the best coffee beer out there. It is organic though, right? :)

Pours a murky amber, with a finger of rigid light tan colored head. Smooth creamy layer of retention stays frothy, leaving rich swathes of lacing back. Wow, this aroma is thick with roasted coffee character, that is layered on top of notes of bread and caramel. A gentle floral feel wraps around the flavors, as does some light spice.

The espresso is just as strong in the taste, with a toasty acrid feel to it, that combines with citrus and toasted caramel malts to impart a rich tang to this. Finishes dry and roasty, with lingering bitterness and spice. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a bubbly and smooth carbonation, that enables this to flow very nicely for the richer flavors that are involved here.

Nice! No shortage of coffee here, and the softer profile and body of the Amber Ale meshed nicely with the more darker roasted flavors. Well done beer that definitely took me a bit my surprise with how much I liked it.

I love this beer, possibly the only one in the amber family I'd say that about. This is what I imagine buzz beer (The Drew Carrey show) tasting like. The beer was a smooth crisp red amber ale with hints of espresso beans and a bitter sweet finish. The beer pour with little head coming out a light copperish color. The smell is sweet coffee smell like you'd expect in a coffee shop. I could easily drink beer like this all night long.

A: poured a burnt orange into an american shaker pint with about a half finger of off white head that thins out to just a skim rather quickly. Only a moderate amount of spotted lacing is left on the glass.

S: huge amounts of espresso right up front and in you face.

T: leaves a lot to be desired, the caramel malts are there and the espresso lingers on the tongue but there's no complexity.

Crystal clear, but very dark for even an amber. It almost looks like a brown ale. Nice half-inch off white head that dissipates quickly. The nose is mostly coffee, but there is some 'beeriness' underlying it.

The first few sips take a bit of getting used to. The coffee flavor is front and center, but the amber ale that it's hitching a ride with isn't a shrinking violet so there's a bit of a tug of war as to what exactly your tongue is telling the brain it's tasting at first. Things settle down quickly and find a balance and prove this to be an exceedingly drinkable ale. The up front espresso finishes with the expected roasted bitterness leading into mild hop bitterness at the edges. Definite maltiness going on so there is a touch of sweetness but not overly so. A nice medium body is perfect support for the taste and even though there's a good amount of malt there's no slick-sweet build up even after a couple of pints.

In the end I think what makes this a great beer is that it doesn't taste gimmicky. It doesn't taste like the coffee was an after thought nor is the coffee an attempt to mask an inferior amber. Peak's got a great example of balance right here. Absolutely check this beer out if you are a coffee fiend. Also for those beer fanatics who like coffee, but are not fans of the stouts and porters that usually play host to it Peak's may be the beer you've been looking for. Highly recommended and this, my friends is truly a breakfast beer.

And if you are a conscientious consumer not only are the ingredients of the beer certified organic, the coffee used is Fair Trade Certified.